The following itinerary is
subject to change due to availability of timed entrances to the Uffizi
and Galleria, dates for the Renaissance dinner and opera, and other attractive
venues which may be available.

Morning: 10:00 –
Meet at the Bargello
Museum (Via dei Proconsolo 4). The original seat of the Florentine
government (built 1255), the Bargello houses one of the greatest collections
of Tuscan Renaissance sculpture.

Principal works:
Michelangelo’s Bacchus, Donatello’s bronze and marble Davids
and St. Michael, and the original competition panels submitted by
Ghiberti and Brunelleschi for the “Doors of Paradise” of the Baptistery.
It is here where prisoners sentenced to death would spend their last evenings
meditating on frescoes depicting the gates of hell and allegories of sinners
redeemed.

Visit American Express Office:
book train tickets for weekend excursions. Then to the Badia to see Filippo
Lippi’s Vision of St. Bernard.

Afternoon: Santa Croce
Church and Museum and Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel (featured in the movie,
Hannibal).

Santa Croce is Florence’s
mausoleum. Machiavelli, Rossini, Bruni, Michelangelo, Galileo, and over
250 other important Florentines are buried here. There are also monuments
to Dante, Fermi, and Marconi. Here we will sing Gregorian Chant from the
choir books in the Sacristy. The Santa Croce Leather Works, where
you can see leather workers creating purses, briefcases, coats, and other
quality leather products, is located here.

May 11Friday

Morning: 10:00 –
meet at the Duomo. Count/Dottore/Professore Niccolò Capponi will
give a walking tour of historical sites in old town Florence. Dr. Capponi
will give us an overview of the growth of the city, communal government
and rise of the Medici. We then will visit Santa Felicità Church
and the Capponi Chapel that houses the famous Pontormo Deposition.
Then to the Palazzo Capponi to view the setting for the movie Hannibal.

Afternoon: 14:30 –
History of Science Museum. As an added attraction, Dottore Capponi will
meet with the students to discuss the role that Galileo played in the history
of Florence and science.

May 14Saturday

free
day - suggestions:excursions to Venice, Siena,
Rome, Cinque Terre, San Giminiagnoclimb the Duomo (through
Brunelleschi’s double vaulting) and/or the Giotto towerhike to San Miniato to hear
Gregorian Chantjog in the Cascine (two
mile long public park along the Arno)

May 15Sunday

(optional)
- Attend Solemn High Mass in the Duomo. We will worship in the section
located directly under Brunelleschi's Dome with its Vasari frescoes. This
will also permit us to visit the side chapels of the Duomo after the Mass.
These are usually inaccessible to the general public except for those attending
Mass.

May 16Monday

Morning: 09:00 -
meet at Piazza San Felicità for the Galileo walk to Arcetri. Bring
along water and food for this three to four hour circular walk in the area
where Galileo was under house arrest for the last several years of his
life. Visit San Matteo Convent where Galileo’s daughter wrote the letters
compiled by Dana Sobel in the recent best seller, Galileo’s Daughter.
Most of this walk will be in the countryside south of Florence.

Lunch: sandwiches at Gustapanino
near Santo Spirito Square

Afternoon: (13:30)
- San Carmine and the Brancacci Chapel to study the seminal Masaccio and
Masolino frescoes.

then to Santo Spirito Church,
to experience Brunelleschi’s use of perspective and view Michelangelo’s
newly found Crucifixion; also a visit to the private Frescobaldi
Gardens with its grotesque statue of Pan.

May 17Tuesday

Afternoon: 12:15
– meet at the reserved ticket entrance door of the Uffizi Gallery, Loggiato
degli Uffizi 6. Go to the Piazza della Signoria, head south toward the
Arno. The entrance will be about midway on the left between the Arno and
Palazzo Vecchio. DO NOT BE LATE. If you do not arrive in time, your ticket
will be invalid and you will then have to wait in line; not a pleasant
way to spend an afternoon in Florence.

Evening: OPERA NIGHT
– the date may change since the opera schedule has not yet been announced

May 18Wednesday

Morning: 10:30 –
meet at the Galleria della Accademia at the reserved ticket door. Site
of the school of art and architecture, founded by Cosimo I in 1562.

In the Galleria
next to the David are four of Michelangelo’s famous nonfinite, the Prisoners
or Slaves, sculpted for Pope Julius II’s tomb and left in various stages
of completion. The Gallery was founded by Grand Duke Pietro Leopold in
1784 to provide students with examples of art from every period. The big
busy Mannerist paintings around the David are by Michelangelo’s contemporaries,
among them Pontormo’s Venus and Cupid. Other rooms contain a good
selection of quattrocento painting, including the Madonna del Mare
by Botticelli, the Thebaid by a follower of Uccello, and Perugino’s
Deposition. The painted frontal of the Adimari chest shows a delightful
wedding scene of the 1450’s with the Baptistery in the background.

Afternoon: (13:30) -
Cappelle Medicee, Piazza Madonna degli Aldobrandini - visit the New Sacristy
with Michelangelo’s famous Night,
Day, Dawn, and Dusk
marbles; visit the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the Biblioteca Laurentiana.

Evening: 18:00 – lecture
at the British Institute (optional)

19:30 – Group meal at Casalinga

May 19Thursday

Morning: 09:30 -
Santa Maria Novella and the Spanish Chapel Fiesole: Our trip to Fiesole
will be by Bus Number 7, leaving from Piazza San Marco. (Beware of pickpockets!!!)

In Fiesole we will
study the Roman ruins and Etruscan wall and museum. Each will be given
a story from Boccaccio’s Decameron to interpret.

May 20Friday

Morning: 10:00 –
We visit San
Marco to study its frescoed cloisters and the works of Fra Angelico.
12:30 - Palazzo Medici Ricardi

Afternoon: 13:30 –
Archeological Museum

May 21Saturday

Morning:
10:00 – Meet at the Sita Bus Station for a visit to Villa La Calcinaia
(Greti), the vineyard owned by the Capponi family. We will be taste wine
in its various states of aging. Lunch: (13:30) – group meal in Greve in
Chianti at La Cantina

May 22Sunday

Free
day

May 21Monday

Morning: 10:00 -
Davanzati Museum – Via Porto Rosso, 13 to see partial reconstruction of
a 15th century common house.
Afternoon: Packing, last
minute shopping and preparation for Renaissance Dinner.

Paolina Bonaparte,
Napoleon’s sister, once lived here. Randomly selected students will take
part – in authentic dress - in the evening’s entertainment. Donald Francis,
our host, will discuss the history of the palazzo and describe its ceiling
art. This is a dress up affair.

May 22Tuesday

Return to United States
or continue travel throughout Europe.

Other events may replace
any of the above; the final itinerary will be chosen by the students during
the Spring Orientation meetings.